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Amazon Flex driver Ricardo Escalona works to ship his same-day orders throughout Cyber Monday from an Amazon achievement middle in Tampa, Florida, on November 27, 2023.
Octavio Jones | Getty Pictures Information | Getty Pictures
Amazon is shutting down a service that permits same-day supply to malls and brick-and-mortar shops, CNBC has realized.
The corporate has halted any new improvement of the service, referred to as Amazon at present, and can section it out, in response to two folks with information of the matter. The folks didn’t wish to be named as a result of they weren’t approved to talk to the press.
Many of the program will finish on Dec. 2, the folks mentioned. Choose retail companions can proceed to meet orders with Amazon Right now by way of January 24, 2025, Amazon advised CNBC.
A small variety of staff can be laid off and obtain severance pay, whereas others can be moved to different positions inside Amazon, the corporate mentioned.
Workers who work at Amazon Right now heard the information Monday at a gathering, the place some staffers have been advised they’d be fired, the folks mentioned. About 300 staff labored at Amazon Right now, the folks mentioned. Amazon disputed this determine, saying about 175 staff labored within the unit.
The closure of Amazon Right now is the most recent instance of the corporate’s broader cost-cutting efforts.
Since 2022, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been campaigning to chop prices throughout the corporate to fulfill quickly altering macro situations. From 2022 by way of 2024, Amazon initiated the most important layoffs in its historical past, chopping greater than 27,000 jobs. Jassy has taken a harder stance on the corporate’s unproven, higher-priced bets than his predecessor, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Jassy has shut down a number of tasks, together with a telehealth service, a video calling machine for kids, and a touring treasure wagon.
Launching in 2022, Amazon Right now will permit retailers promoting on Amazon to supply quick supply from their bodily shops and malls in choose cities. Amazon-contracted Flex drivers, who ship in their very own automobiles, decide up the packages and drop them off at clients’ doorways inside hours of orders being positioned.
Amazon Right now was a part of the corporate’s push to get on-line purchases to customers’ houses quicker. Amazon continues so as to add extra services targeted on same-day deliveries in an effort to spice up gross sales and compete with different corporations providing ultra-fast deliveries. That features Instacart and DoorDash, which have expanded past meals and groceries into retail.
In line with this system’s web site, the corporate had a number of retailers affiliated with Amazon Right now. That record included Workplace Depot; Staples; Petco; PacSun; vitamin and dietary complement chain GNC; and Fabletics, the sportswear model of actress Kate Hudson.
Amazon is working with the retailers it signed up for the service to make sure a easy transition for them, the corporate mentioned. Amazon added that it continues to prioritize and spend money on quick supply.
The choice to shut Amazon Right now comes as a shock as Amazon was within the means of onboarding different retailers, one of many folks mentioned. The corporate was additionally pitching the service to extra retailers at a convention final week.
The service was dearer than conventional supply routes the place Flex drivers can fill their vehicles with packages from an Amazon warehouse, one of many folks mentioned. Amazon Right now routes, which the corporate calls “retail deliveries,” usually did not fill a driver’s trunk, making this system much less worthwhile for the Flex contractors.
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